Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

Grandma comes to visit, 8-13 April, 2010

I picked Mum up from the airport early Thursday morning, while Sparrow stayed asleep in bed with James. When she woke up for the morning, Grandma was here! Some curiosity and conversation ensued. Sparrow definitely remembers and recognises her grandparents now.

I'd got the air mattress out for Mum but not yet made up the bed. Sparrow thought the air mattress was the best thing to climb on ever. It wasn't the warmest of mornings so we threw on a new shirt. Mum brought these with her - two red and white ones like this one and a green and white one. My brother and I wore them when we were babies too. They are quite comfortable. She also brought a knitted jumper that I wore when I was a baby and it's just the right size now.

Mum had also brought with her five new figurines for Sparrow's collection. She'd told me they were dolls of the world, and they were excellent. It's these five at the front - the Indian lady in a sari, a Thai dancer, a Japanese girl, an Eastern European or Swiss lady, and one that Mum thinks might be Russian but I think might be Balinese - certainly folkloric in some way. Behind them is my most recent purchase, the African lady carrying water. The collection just keeps growing. I liked these dolls, they were very colourful. Sparrow did too. Mum put them on the shelf before Sparrow had woken up, and then the first time Sparrow sat in Mum's lap in the chair in this corner she immediately started having a conversation about something very clear and definite if completely incomprehensible. We don't know what she was saying exactly, but it was most certainly telling us about there being some new dolls just up there.

A quick shopping trip on the way home from picking up Sparrow from daycare. Mum got to see where Sparrow goes two mornings a week. She was a little surprised that it's as far away as it is, but that's the demographics of our local council area - there's very few mums and kids in my suburb and even fewer family day care providers - most are in the suburbs on the opposite side of our council. So that's the trek you have to make. It does mean I get to have a nice drive past the beach every Thursday and Friday and Sparrow doesn't seem to mind looking at the ocean and trees either.

Mum asked what she could do that would be a help to me while she was here, and I suggested keeping Sparrow distracted and playing with her while I got this room a bit more sorted out. There are a lot of boxes of stuff that have just been picked up and moved into here to get them out of the way as people come to visit or as Sparrow got better able to get into things she shouldn't. So Mum and I spent a bit of time in this room, though mostly while Sparrow slept. Sparrow has woken up and was in the middle of a nappy change when she decided to escape and come find Grandma. She's not allowed in this room, but Grandma's here so it MUST be OK. She's so excited, she's waving that little paper tag around frantically. I had to laugh - there are so many things in here that she's not allowed to play with, and she got as far as the paper tag and stopped.

The main loungeroom was in a bit of chaos, too - I needed to sort Sparrow's toys including all the new stuffed ones she'd got at Easter and put only some out and the rest away. People keep giving her stuffed toys, including us, and she just has no interest in them yet. I figure the day will come though.

Mum went on an excursion to Williamstown on one afternoon and came back with a few odd things. This toy - whatever it's called - has been lots of fun. Sparrow hasn't yet worked out that she can't get the wooden beads off it. But she does like picking it up and dropping it. It's a bit heavy, but she hasn't quite dropped it on herself yet. Yet.

Playing and cuddling in the evening before going to bed.

Looking through Grandma's glasses.

Her shoes are pretty cool too.

Good morning, Grandma. Here, have a CD. I got it out of the box just for you. Mum was playing the "thank you" game with Sparrow a fair bit. Sparrow'd just started getting the idea that she could give us things as well as taking them from our hands. So Mum would hold out her hand, Sparrow would give her the CD, Mum would say thank you, then give it back. A new game, and a good one to play. I don't always think of things like this, so I'm very glad for grandmothers who do :-)

One of the many things from the trunk that Mum had looked through and brought with her was a matching poncho set that she and I wore when I was very little. Sparrow is trying on the baby-sized one. It will be more effective when she can walk, but it's cute now.

Mum's last day here. We didn't mean to spend so much of it at Ikea, we were just going to pick up a couple more shelves for the set we were putting into the desk room as part of all the sorting and cleaning. But we started finding interesting things, and maybe that's as well seeing as when we finally got to the end of the maze we found out that the shelves I was after were discontinued. Mum was hoping to find something appropriate for Sparrow as we went through, having now watched her for a few days and seen where she's at. We considered rocking chairs, and this one was quite nice. But she wasn't quite into it yet. It will help when she is walking and better able to get into the chair herself, I think. She climbs on so much now but this wasn't quite right yet.

Sparrow wasn't really keen on staying in the stroller. She really wanted to get out and get around herself. This was a brief escape for her. She couldn't really decide which way to crawl or what to look at, just knew that she didn't want to be strapped in and moving at our pace. The overalls she's wearing are ones that Mum found at the second hand store on her shopping trip. They fit really nicely.

The children's section was much more to her liking. They have little "bedrooms" set up with these arches between them and she crawled straight through each arch to see what she could find, with her mother following to make sure I didn't lose her :-). She did stop and look around briefly in the pink glitzy princess bedroom, and I had a moment of "oh dear, has it started already?", but then she saw this train set in the next "room" and went straight for it. The little wooden trains were fun and she tried to take them back with her as she crawled around exploring. She was quite put out with me that I wouldn't let her keep them. Mum and I had fun in the children's section too. There was a "play area" with lots of Ikea's toys and products out for kids to interact with. Which makes a lot of sense, really. Sparrow had fun. She was eleven months old, there was another boy there who was twelve months and one who was thirteen months. So Mum and I got to see children who were just slightly older and further along in their physical development playing with the items as well, and that was really helpful in seeing what she might be about to grow into or out of. Mum was particularly on the lookout for a birthday present, and she ended up choosing a couple of wooden toys and a little storage stool we'd seen that was just the right height for Sparrow to stand at and get toys in and out of. The toys have been tried briefly and then put away for the next month or so til she gets ready for them, but the stool is now a well-used fixture in the loungeroom.

Lunch in the cafeteria. Sparrow had mixed reactions to the food, as usual. I can never predict what she's going to like or dislike, and sometimes I suspect neither can she. She liked looking out the big windows and down at the people on the escalators. I thought this was just a really interesting photo to try and take.

At the airport early in the morning, walking through streams of people and light and noise.

Saying goodbye to Grandma. What, already?